03stenson’s;snowman
for a couple hours at the masters yesterday, it looked to be quite a 36th birthday for
henrik stenson. the swede, no. 5 in the world after winning the 2009 players but now
171st, was cruising along, making two eagles in a first-nine 31. after two second-nine
chip-ins—for par at 11, birdie at 15—he was six under and three ahead. even after three-
putting 16, he came to the par- 4 18th at five under, still with a two-shot lead. but then,
after hooking a drive deep into the trees, trying to be too aggressive from a dodgy lie in
the pine straw on his third shot and misjudging his fourth, things went haywire. “that’s
normally what happens,” stenson said. “you make a little mistake and you compound
it with another, and it just keeps on snowballing. and i got the snowman in the end.”
stenson’s 8 equalled the worst score on no. 18 in a masters, a quadruple bogey having
been made six times previously, the latest by camilo Villegas in ’07. stenson’s 71 leaves
him four back of leader lee westwood, but well before the final hole his game was tee-
tering, having missed the last five fairways. “that’s obviously going to cost you at some
point, but i didn’t expect it to cost as much as it did on 18.” stenson has a temper, but this
time there were no broken clubs to go with his suddenly broken round. “[it’s either have]
no full-length clubs anymore or forget about it,” he said. “i need my clubs tomorrow, so i
choose that path.” he then went looking for some “calmness” in his swing so his second-
round scorecard might not have so many moods. —Bill Fields (@BillFields1)
mike segar / reuters
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